Email sent

Nomination Board

A position paper issued by the Finnish Cabinet Committee on Economic Policy in February 2004 stressed that general meetings of shareholders of publicly listed State-owned companies and companies partly owned by the State should appoint a committee to prepare a proposal covering the composition of the board of directors for the following general meeting of shareholders to vote on. The paper indicated that these AGM nomination committees should generally select representatives from a company’s largest shareholders and propose an expert member as chairman.

The position paper is based on the belief that a company’s board of directors should enjoy the trust of its owners and that it should act in the interests of shareholders, and that the preparations for its election should lie in the hands of its owners. This, the paper indicates, will strengthen the potential of owners to make their voice heard as effectively and as openly as possible.

The paper suggests that a nomination committee appointed by a board of directors itself, in line with the Governance Code covering listed companies in Finland, is best suited to companies with a diverse ownership base. In the case of companies owned in full or in part by the State, with large owners that are both well-known to the public and active, the approach recommended under the Governance Code is not to be recommended because of the nature of the ownership involved and the responsibility associated with this type of major holding.

As a listed State-owned company, Neste Oil observes the recommendation contained in the above position paper in respect of its Nomination Committee. Since 2011, Neste Oil has named the Nomination Committee, in accordance with the new Corporate Governance Code 2010, as the AGM Nomination Board to distinguish it from the Nomination Committee comprising members of the Board of Directors.

Following the proposal by the Board of Directors, the 2013 AGM decided to establish a permanent Shareholders' Nomination Board to be responsible for drafting and presenting proposals covering the remuneration and number of members of the Company's Board of Directors and for presenting candidates as potential Board members to the AGM and to an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders where needed. The Nomination Board shall also be responsible for identifying successors for existing Board members.

The Nomination Board shall consist of four (4) members, three of which shall be appointed by the Company's three largest shareholders, who shall appoint one member each. The Chair of the Company's Board of Directors shall serve as the fourth member.

The Company's largest shareholders entitled to elect members to the Nomination Board shall be determined annually on the basis of the registered holdings in the Company's list of shareholders held by Euroclear Finland Ltd. as of the first weekday in September in the year concerned. The Chair of the Company's Board of Directors shall request each of the three largest shareholders established on this basis to nominate one member to the Nomination Board. In the event that a shareholder does not wish to exercise his or her right to appoint a representative, it shall pass to the next-largest shareholder who would not otherwise be entitled to appoint a member.

The Chair of the Board of Directors shall convene the first meeting of the Nomination Board, which will be responsible for electing a Chair from among its members; the Nomination Board's Chair shall be responsible for convening subsequent meetings. When the Nomination Board has been selected, the Company will issue a release to this effect.

The Nomination Board shall serve until further notice, unless the AGM decides otherwise. Its members shall be elected annually and their term of office shall end when new members are elected to replace them.

The Nomination Board shall forward its proposals for the AGM to the Company's Board of Directors annually by 31 January, prior to the holding of the AGM. Proposals intended for a possible Extraordinary General Meeting shall be forwarded to the Company's Board of Directors in time for them to be included in the invitation to the meeting sent out to shareholders.